Smart city hope brightens with Amrut promise for Pimpri Chinchwad

PIMPRI CHINCHWAD: If not the Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) will do just fine for Pimpri Chinchwad.

Some projects listed by the municipal corporation in its Smart City plan may be completed under the Union government's recently launched Amrut plan.

The projects include continuous (24/7) pressured water supply, providing sewerage system for newly developed areas in Pimpri Chinchwad, and providing water supply scheme in Tathawade.

Another mass transit project to be covered is the 7.08km Bus Rapid Transport System corridor between Wakad and Nashik Phata.

Pimpri Chinchwad had participated in the Smart City Challenge Competition. It had listed 18 projects including 24x7 water supply for 60% of the municipal area, expansion of BRTS corridors, water supply and sewerage projects, and installation of LED street lights.

The continuous water supply project was to be completed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. The civic body had earlier implemented a pilot project in Nigdi Pradhikaran and after its success, proposed this project.

JNNURM officer Neelkanth Poman said the civic body has been told by the Union ministry of urban development that the four projects would be covered under Amrut scheme. "We do not have to send any fresh proposal for the four projects," he said.

The Union ministry of urban development recently issued directives that some projects which could not be completed under JNNURM will be covered under Amrut.

Fifty per cent of the approved cost will be borne by the ministry while the remaining will be shared by the state government and the civic body.

The first indication about the exclusion of Pimpri Chinchwad from the Smart Cities Mission list had come from a state government resolution on August 21 when mentors were appointed for each city under the Smart City Challenge competition of the Union government.

The government had included Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad as an urban agglomeration and appointed principal secretary of the state urban development department Nitin Kareer as its mentor. The announcement about Smart Cities was made on August 27.

There was a hue and cry about Pimpri Chinchwad's exclusion with several elected office-bearers, including MLAs, activists and citizens' groups criticizing the decision.

The civic body had approved a proposal that Pimpri Chinchwad should be included in the list of Smart Cities. The proposal was sent to the central and state governments.

A final decision about the exclusion of Pimpri Chinchwad from the list came in September after a delegation led by former union minister Sharad Pawar and PCMC's elected office bearers met Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu.

Box 1

Under Amrut

** 24 x 7 pressured water supply for 60% of city - Rs 143.17 crore

** Providing sewerage system for developed areas - Rs 41.49 crore

** Providing water supply scheme for Tathawade - Rs 40.58 crore

** BRTS corridor - Nashik phata to Wakad - Rs 206.82 crore

BOX 2

Three practices for other cities

** For Pimpri Chinchwad, leakages and technical losses in its distribution system were a major constraint in shifting to continuous supply. PCMC initiated a pilot project in 2012 for a helium gas based leak detection program which identified 132 leaks in the 20 km pilot study. The leak detection program enabled PCMC to take a structured approach to address service delivery improvements.

** A pilot project under the service level benchmarking (SLB) programme was conducted by PCMC in collaboration with Water Sanitation Program of the World Bank. The SLB connect pilot provided a window into the possibilities of addressing the challenge of citizen engagement through use of ICT tools.

** PCMC is promoting high-density development next to BRTS corridors. It has identified 100 m on either side of the BRTS corridors as BRT influence zone. PCMC provides 80% higher FSI of 1.80 in the BRTS influence zone. PCMC's model allows loading of TDR into the BRT influence zone